Partly because of incidents like this one, Apache children on the reservations grew up in fear of the last free Chiricahuas. At the turn of the 20th century, there were probably Apaches scattered through the northern Sierra Madre. They were a constant menace to the local Mexican ranchers and cowboys, and to the Mormon farmers who settled in the mountains after polygamy was outlawed in the United States in In September , a Danish-born Mormon named Hans Thompson left his family in Cave Valley, in the northeast Sierra Madre, to visit another wife in a valley 30 miles away.
Two Apache warriors appeared without warning at the Cave Valley homestead. They shot and killed year-old Hiram Thompson.
Then they shot and wounded his year-old brother Elmer, who played dead and later described what happened. His mother came rushing out of the house. Then a group of Apache women surrounded her and beat her to death with rocks. The men ransacked the house, slashed up the feather beds, donned the sacred Mormon garments, stole the horses, and rode away.
The Apaches, like many American Indian tribes, had no real concept of ethnic purity, and for centuries they had bolstered their numbers by taking captive women and children from other tribes and from Mexican and Anglo communities.
In the Sierra Madre, they continued to take captives well into the s. Mexican ranchers were capturing Apache children at the same time and raising them as house servants. Atrocities were committed on both sides of this bitter conflict. In the s, a tough Sonoran rancher named Francisco Fimbres led a series of extermination campaigns against the Apaches. They had murdered his wife in front of him and stole and later killed one of his small children.
Fimbres and his men hunted for Apache camps, and almost invariably they contained only women and children. Nelda Villa, a local historian in the Sierra Madre and a renowned expert on the remnant Apaches, believes that most of the men had already been killed by Mexicans while raiding.
Fimbres and his men killed all the Apache women they could find and adopted the children. Time passed. In the s, those living in the US again reached out to their relatives in Mexico. But here there were grandkids and great grandkids and roots. Again, nobody wanted to go north.
Regardless, the seed of identity remained. Otherwise, she would be journeying through forests, real and imagined. Author of La fosa de agua Debate Saltar al contenido. A History of Extermination Imagine being alive at the end of the 17th Century as a member of what the Spanish and the criollos Europeans descendents born on the American continent called Apaches. In english. Rich countries are militarizing the climate crisis. Goodbye, Merida Initiative.
There are still several Apache tribes today. There are approximately 5, Apaches today. The following lists catalog the specific articles, stories, legends and research materials of this website. Click Here to give an online gift. Toggle navigation. Apache Tribes Apache tribes were known as fierce warriors and knowledgeable strategists. The Apache women were skillful providers.
They could find water where others would die of thirst. They prepared meat and skins brought home by the men. While the men hunted, the women gathered wild plants, foods, nuts, and seeds. They picked fruit and berries, dug roots and harvested the plants. Apache people gathered the sweet fruit of the broad-leafed Yucca and pounded its roots in water to make suds for shampoo.
The Apache women prepared a staple food from the heart of the Mescal plant. Apache people were kind to their children.
They taught them good manners, kindness, fortitude and obedience. The children would play games that improved their dexterity. Traditional Apache religion was based on the belief in the supernatural and the power of nature. Nature explained everything in life for the Apache people. White Painted Woman gave our people their virtues of pleasant life and longevity. Apache religion, expressed in poetic terms, has passed from generation to generation.
This is the background and the heritage of our people, the Mescalero Apaches. One of the most traditional and sacred ceremonies practiced by the Mescalero Apache is the puberty rite ceremony. A young girl celebrates her rite of passage with family-prepared feasts, dancing, blessings and rituals established hundreds of years ago. It emphasizes her upbringing which includes learning her tribal language and instilling, from infancy, a sense of discipline and good manners.
The ceremony binds the Mescalero Apache as people functioning as a cohesive unit. In the evenings, visitors can catch a glimpse of these important events, observing the masked dancers as they perform through singing and drumming. The ceremony is a major commitment for the family of the girl. Preparation often begins as much as a year in advance with the gathering of sacred items such as roasted mescal heart and pollen from water plants.
A medicine man and medicine woman must participate. Dancers and singers must be arranged. Finding a ceremonial dress, either from a relative who previously went through the ceremony, or one that has been made for the occasion, is important, as it is a symbolic part of the rite. Gifts are also given. It is said that this ceremony was given to the Apache people by White Painted Woman.
When her people, the Apache, were hard pressed by evil monsters, White Painted Woman reared a son to destroy those creatures and to make the earth inhabitable for mankind. She is the model of heroic and virtuous womanhood. For the duration of the rite, the young girl dresses and acts like White Painted Woman. The girl is never referred to by her name, but is known as White Painted Woman. Beginning at dawn on the first day, the young girl is guided and advised by a medicine woman through four days of formal observances and events.
A teepee-shaped ceremonial structure is created by a medicine man and his male helpers.
0コメント